Adventurer Bruce Kessler Dies at 88

Bruce Kessler, a lifelong adventurer who left his mark as a winning professional automobile racer, a veteran Hollywood director, and one of the first Americans to circumnavigate the globe as captain of a motoryacht, died April 4. He marked his 88^th birthday on March 23. Bruce was born in Seattle, lived most of his life in California, and died in Marina del Rey, his longtime home. But he was never more at home than when he was aboard his boat at sea or in port. Over his lifetime, he logged over 100,000 nautical miles as captain of his own cruising boats.

But before he was introduced to boating, he was a race car driver. He started age 16, first competing in Sports Car Club of America events driving his mom’s Jaguar XK120. At age 22 in 1958 he was driving for Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans when, in the middle of the night, in the rain, he crashed into the wreckage of another car and survived, though seriously injured.

He retired from racing after surviving two crashes in two years, and made his first film, a short subject called The Sound of Speed. The film was the U.S. entry in its category at the 1962 Cannes International Film Festival. That was his entrée into Hollywood.

He learned his trade quickly under the mentorship of the legendary Howard Hawks and directed four movies and a long string of popular TV series. This included many episodes of Mission Impossible, The Rockford Files, MacGyver, Knight Rider, Hart to Hart, McCloud, Renegade, The Commish, and many more.

Directing was Bruce’s vocation, but boats were never far from his mind. From the time he could barely walk down a dock, boating and fishing were a passion for him. His first boat was a 26-foot sport fisherman in 1960, but he soon found that he wanted to fish farther and farther from home, and his sportfishers grew in size, topping out at 48 feet. By then he was roaming deep into Baja Mexico, far from his San Diego homeport. “At that point I realized trawlers had become a logical progression for me,” he told a friend. “Range and sea-keeping abilities were paramount in my mind.”

He turned to his friend, naval architect Steve Seaton, for the design of his next boat. Then he approached Delta Marine, a renowned American builder of tough commercial fishing vessels, and asked them to take Seaton’s design, apply what they knew about building rugged boats, and develop a long-range trawler yacht for him. They showed no interest. Twisting arms at Delta wasn’t easy, but Bruce leaned in and persisted. Eventually the company gave in and Delta began work on its first recreational motoryacht: 70 feet overall with a 20-foot beam, 10-foot draft and displacement of 116 tons. She was a big boat.

The boat was launched May 1, 1985. Her massive hull was painted a deep, rich British racing green. Bruce christened his new ride Zopilote, after the black buzzards that scavenged the shores of the waters he fished off Mexico.

The new boat was as unique as her name. At the time, no one had any idea what an iconic and groundbreaking trawler yacht she would become. In the world of offshore cruising boats Zopilote proved to be a game-changer, and it wasn’t long before Delta ceased building fishing boats and shifted entirely to yachts—hefty offshore yachts like Zopilote, then larger and fancier superyachts.

Bruce and the love of his life, actress Joan Freeman, moved merrily ahead. They first cruised their new Zopilote from Seattle to Alaska, then down the West Coast to Panama, through the canal, on to Florida, then Maine, and the Caribbean, before returning home to Southern California. Along the way, they began to focus on their next chapter—taking Zopilote around the world. “I always wanted to go farther, to somewhere that no one else had gone,” he told an interviewer.

In 1990, almost five years after the boat was launched, Bruce and Joan departed California, bound for the South Pacific on what would play out as a 35,000-mile circumnavigation. When they arrived in Fort Lauderdale from Europe after their final leg in 1993, Zopilote became the sixth powerboat in history to complete a circumnavigation.

Until Zopilote’s trip around the world, circumnavigations aboard pleasure boats had been almost entirely the province of sailing yachts. Zopilote’s circumnavigation made headlines around the yachting world. She appeared on the cover of Yachting magazine twice during the trip. Her high-profile circumnavigation inspired a new movement, and “cruising under power” quickly gained new respect and followers. It also marked the beginning of a new wave of offshore cruising powerboats capable of crossing oceans—one that began to roll through the boating industry. Suddenly, Bruce was in high demand as a speaker, an offshore cruising advocate who had been there and done that.

Always calm, modest, and “aw-shucks” self-effacing, Bruce took his newfound yachting celebrity in stride always ready to lend a hand to others who dreamed of crossing oceans or just cruising under power. He was a popular speaker at TrawlerFests, boat shows, yacht clubs, and other boating gatherings. He also helped create and promote powerboat rallies, including the FUBAR Rally and the historic Nordhavn Atlantic Rally, a first which saw 19 powerboats cross the Atlantic in convoy in 2004. He never asked or accepted fees for his appearances. He simply loved being around cruising yachties, and they loved him.

For all her glory, Zopilote met a tragic end, striking an uncharted underwater ledge in Alaska and sinking in minutes in 1994. Bruce and his crew of four escaped to a liferaft with no one lost or injured. He was devastated by the loss, but before long he was looking ahead, eyes on the horizon.

He went on to build a new Seaton-designed 64-foot passagemaker, Spirit of Zopilote, in the same style and color as the original. The new boat was Northern Marine’s first build, and she was delivered in 1997.

Over the next 27 years Bruce and Joan lived and cruised aboard Spirit of Zopilote from Alaska though the Panama Canal, and on to Florida, the Bahamas, and the Canadian Maritimes. They chose Maine’s Southwest Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, as their homeport, and Bruce, Joan and Spirit of Zopilote were well-known summer residents there for his last two decades. At Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina in Southwest Harbor, Bruce was known as “the mayor of the dock”, always quick to take docklines and extend a welcome to new arrivals.

Over his lifetime, Bruce logged more than 100,000 nautical miles (and 25,000 hours) underway as captain of his own vessels. He was a recipient of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America’s Spirit of Competition Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from PassageMaker magazine. He was a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2001 he was the first non-sailing powerboater elected to membership in the Cruising Club of America.

Bruce was also a member of the Ocean Cruising Club, a longtime member of the Del Rey Yacht Club, the Southwestern Yacht Club (San Digeo), the Marlin Club (San Diego), and the Tuna Club (Avalon, Catalina Island), and an Honorary Commodore of the Seven Seas Cruising Association.

In 2007 Bruce founded the FUBAR (Fleet Underway to Baja Rally), a 980-mile powerboat flotilla cruise from San Diego around the tip of the Baja peninsula to La Paz, Mexico, as a continuing fundraiser for junior sailing at Del Rey Yacht Club. The mission of the rally was to give powerboaters an opportunity to experience long-distance cruising to Mexico with the safety of a flotilla of 50+ boats, complete with mechanical, communications, and medical personnel in the fleet.

FUBAR later changed its name to CUBAR (Cruise Underway to Baja Rally) and is now run every two years by under San Diego Yacht Club. It remains a fundraiser for junior sailing programs.

Instead of flowers, Bruce’s family asks that a donation in his honor be made to the Del Rey Yacht Club Youth Sailing (13900 Palawan Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292), to another non-profit sailing program such as the Mount Desert Island Community Sailing Center in Bruce’s beloved summer homeport, Southwest Harbor, Maine (168 Clark Point Road Southwest Harbor, ME 04679), or to any local yacht club youth sailing program.